my cousin flys with the 177th fighter wing atlantic city air force reserves. I rarely get to see him even though i live only 30 miles away, but he came over for dinner tonight. We always talk about his flying and such and today he told me about SADL(situational awareness data link).

SADL is like a little MFD in the f-16 cockpit(which only the air force reserves have he says.. not the active duty guys) which gives a gps display of all the planes in his flight.Like he can see ther formation and where each plane is in relation to him, even if he has 0 vis outside his cockpit. he is also able to check how much fuel, as well as what weapons each plane has left.

he basically said its like my flight is all on the internet together. This blew me away because i had not heard of it before although its not something so top secret advanced that i wouldd figure each plane should have such a system already, he said actually that most pilots who dont fly the f-16 probably never heard of the system.

im frickin excited because he is gonna let me fly in the f-16 simulator on base and sit in his f-16 when i come to see him soon. He told me a story about how this general came as a plublicty stunt to fly the simulator and he was running the programs and accidently launched like 15 SAMS at the general while reporters watched ROFL. he got a little in trouble for that one.

my cousin flys with the 177th fighter wing atlantic city air force reserves. I rarely get to see him even though i live only 30 miles away, but he came over for dinner tonight. We always talk about his flying and such and today he told me about SADL(situational awareness data link).

SADL is like a little MFD in the f-16 cockpit(which only the air force reserves have he says.. not the active duty guys) which gives a gps display of all the planes in his flight.Like he can see ther formation and where each plane is in relation to him, even if he has 0 vis outside his cockpit. he is also able to check how much fuel, as well as what weapons each plane has left.

he basically said its like my flight is all on the internet together. This blew me away because i had not heard of it before although its not something so top secret advanced that i wouldd figure each plane should have such a system already, he said actually that most pilots who dont fly the f-16 probably never heard of the system.

im frickin excited because he is gonna let me fly in the f-16 simulator on base and sit in his f-16 when i come to see him soon. He told me a story about how this general came as a plublicty stunt to fly the simulator and he was running the programs and accidently launched like 15 SAMS at the general while reporters watched ROFL. he got a little in trouble for that one.

If there is such a system, it is likely still considered sensitive information, and it may not be tremendously wise to post about it on a public web forum. It sounds like an exceptionally useful peice of electronics, that the USAF may not want highly publicised.

That's the irony of making modern flight sims. While the aircraft are still in existance, and still in common use, they are all still at least partially classified, or proprietary, so you really can't get all of the peices to make them completely accurate.

HarryVoyager wrote:
- If there is such a system, it is likely still
- considered sensitive information, and it may not be
- tremendously wise to post about it on a public web
- forum. It sounds like an exceptionally useful peice
- of electronics, that the USAF may not want highly
- publicised.

True and agreed. It is amazing what information makes it's way into the public domain. A search on http://fas.org shows many documents and plans marked UNCLASSIFIED which one would reasonably expect to be classified.

The people with all the REALLY cool stories and information are the ones who aren't talking....

Beadwindow 02. Out.

XyZspineZyX

10-13-2003, 05:56 AM

"If there is such a system, it is likely still considered sensitive information, and it may not be tremendously wise to post about it on a public web forum"

i asked him if it was a classified thing and he said it wasnt.. he didnt go into full detail of what it did. just the thing about seeing live feed gps blips of the formation, and being able to see the ammo and fuel of the other planes in the flight.

I believe the F-22 has something alot like that. This technology was the reason the F-22's name was changed from Lighting II to the Raptor of Jerassic Park fame. One plane radiates then data links everything to his group which is EW silent. While the enemy closes on the lone EW transmissions, due to the Raptors stealthy profile, the other F-22's covertly schwack the boggies from their flanks soley on the GPS oriented instant data link info. They don't even have to radiate to lock ond fire... It's all done by GPS Data Link.